Abstract. Abraham Lurzki (1792–1885) is portrayed in the traditional Karaite historiography as the leading scholar, educator and towering authority in the first half of the 19th century. He was a second-generation Lutzk émigré, hailed from a distinguished family of the Karaite scholars who had arrived in the Crimea in the early nineteenth century. His major contribution to the Karaite community at whole was his activity in the realm of the traditional education: his beit-midrash was the leading educational institution of the time. Hitherto this widely accepted view is based on only two independent sources: a very sketchy biography of Abraham Lutzki by Isaac Sinani and the memoirs wrote by his grandson Jacob Duvan. Needless to say that both sources are hagiography by their nature and therefore not very reliable ones. This paper seeks to establish the key features of the social standing and career of Abraham Lutzki in the Karaite community of the Crimea in its formative years. An attempt is made by utilizing new archival (mostly personal and administrative character) from the Manuscript Department of the Russian State Library.